Rob Ford swept into power as Toronto’s mayor in 2010 on a platform of ending the city’s “gravy train”. That scared Meaghan Davis. She saw social services and the arts pitted against each other in a fight to prove their worth. It spurred her to act.

On Nov. 7 the community surrounding 357 Birchmount Ave. had an opportunity to meet with the developer, Habitat for Humanity, and city officials to find out what the latest plans are for the site. And what the neighbours heard didn’t sit well. They had a number of concerns, many focused on the one of the issues that plagues the entire city – traffic.

The fate of a line of century-old trees, the city has voted to cut down on Chine Drive in Scarborough, remains on hold. City plans along Chine Drive, where members of the Group of Seven artists met at one time, have called for the installation of sidewalks. And with a school located at the end of the street, city officials worry about the safety of travelling students beneath such elderly trees.

Natasha Morris has owned her home since 1983, but has not slept in her own bedroom since July 14. She is currently sleeping on a couch in her Scarborough Ward 36 home after a storm left her basement bedrooms flooded on July 15. Her roommate is sleeping on the floor.

Gary Crawford grew up in the Scarborough area and is now the city councillor for Ward 36, which covers Bluffer’s Park. Ever since he was a teenager, he remembers stories of people scaling the sides of the Scarborough Bluffs or venturing close to the edge to experience the majestic views. “This is something that has been going on for generations,” Crawford says.

People wandering too close to the edge of the cliffs is an ongoing issue that tends to happen in spring and summer, says Gary Crawford, councilor for ward 36. Although the city has put both signs and fences up to keep people away from the eroding cliffs, there are always those who take the risk.

The residents of Scarborough’s Birch Cliff community will not give up the fight over the planned development of high-rise towers on the quarry lands, according to the president of the Concerned Citizens of Quarry Land Development.